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'Murphy's Riots

  • Thread starter Thread starter harborne
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harborne

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Hi All

Forgive me if this is the wrong section of the forum for this discussion. I'm sure it'll be moved if it is.

My mother was telling us at the weekend something about her grandfather being a choirboy at St Chad's and some riots whereby rocks etc were thrown at St Chad's. She thought she remembered this trouble being called 'Murphy's Riots.' Does anyone know anything about this?

ChrisB
 
Harborne the Murphy Riot's was not confined to just Brum it was it a few British towns and cities it was sparked off by Anti-Pope speeches but it was a short lived affair
 
:angel: Here it is harborne, info' found here (there is also pic's .‚..of William Murphy's 'Death Mask' ) :
William Murphy was a most contraversial figure in Britain in the late 1860s. An employee of the Protestant Electoral Union, he delivered a mixture of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sermons to predominantly working class audiences in Birmingham and various other towns visited by his entourage.To fellow Protestants, Murphy was a public hero, defender of the faith, and a messenger of truth; to the Catholic population, especially the Irish, however, he was a rabble-rouser, a liar and an apostate.His outspoken sermons led to the anti-Irish Murphy Riots of June 1867, the most serious religious disorder of the entire Victorian period, which caused extensive harm to property and people, as well as to community relations.

Presented by Ernest Smith, 1920.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks a lot both of you. I can go and tell mum now as she was as mystified as I was.

ChrisB :)
 
Cromwell. This might well explain a mystery in my wifes ancestry. Her Gt Grandfather moved to Birmingham from Ireland, they were a Catholic family, his name was James Lehaney. Sometime around the 1860's they moved house and changed their name from Lehaney to Delaney. If James had been involved in the riots, he might well have wanted to change his name and address. Of course they might just have "done a moonlight flit" to avoid paying the rent. ;D
 
Barrie, All through history folk changed their names because they did not want to be persecuted
The Scots, Irish, Jews, Germans etc and it really mucks ya up doing family research
 
There's a piece on Murphy's Riots in Carl Chinn's 'The Irish in Birmingham'... Off the top of my head I think Murphy started giving a lecture on waste ground in Carrs Lane which was in close proximity to the 'Irish' Park Street quarter where I think the rioting happened.

Will have to check this out in case heaven forbid, I'm wrong... think this happened in 1867. I remember bits of this as I have gt gt grandparents who lived on Park Street.

Janny
 
Thanks Janny, 1867 sounds as if it could be right; my great grandfather would have been about 10 then and as he was a choirboy at St Chad's he would have been about the right age.

ChrisB
 
Here's his grave at Key Hill.

William_Murphy_edited~0.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
jannywanny said:
There's a piece on Murphy's Riots in Carl Chinn's 'The Irish in Birmingham'... Off the top of my head I think Murphy started giving a lecture on waste ground in Carrs Lane which was in close proximity to the 'Irish' Park Street quarter where I think the rioting happened.

Will have to check this out in case heaven forbid, I'm wrong... think this happened in 1867. I remember bits of this as I have gt gt grandparents who lived on Park Street.

Janny
Click to expand...

You are correct. He did start off on a patch of rough ground around that area but eventually had a wooden tabernacle there built to support his lectures.

Birmingham Library has a complete set of news reports detailing the lectures, their content and the events they provoked.

He also gave a lecture in the old Methodist Church (now a Jeans warehouse) in Wednesbury. Such was the demand that he added extra balconies to the structure. However these are said to have collapsed injuring quite a few people. So he adjourned to a patch of waste ground there as well.

He did have eventually set up/acquire a more permanent chapel in Birmingham City Centre (Wrottesly Street if memory serves me right) where he continued to preach after he was attacked in Whitehaven.

The main cause of scandal to him was the fact that the Mayor of Birmingham would not allow him use of the town hall, wheras the previous year it had been used by Cardinal Manning(?) to give a talk. This became a point of reference for every lecture he gave.

The Protestant vs. Catholic struggle in the Midlands is fascinating stuff. Endless stories of the foundation bricks of prospective Catholic churches being removed over night etc. 19th Century England was no different to 20th Century Ireland.
 
Pomgolian said:
:angel: Here it is harborne, info' found here (there is also pic's .‚..of William Murphy's 'Death Mask' ) :
Click to expand...
Hi my name is Alan and I part of the West Midlands Police museum which includes the Birmingham lock up. I have been asked to prepare a talk on the Murphy riots of Birmingham and further afield. Is there any information that you can let me have to prepare this talk. Thank you in anticipation of any help given.
 
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